"He's a great kid," said the Panthers director of player personnel Bryan McCabe. "It's not an easy week coming off the Draft, not speaking English, coming to Florida for the first time. He's going to be a special player for sure from what I saw this week."

Denisenko, born June 24, 2000, was a part of Russia’s U-17 squad, winning a Bronze medal at the Hockey Challenge back in 2016. He also managed to earn 22 points (9 goals + 13 assists) for Loko Yaroslavl in the last MHL season.